Tommy Oar Confident Ahead of Next Year's Tournament

Tommy Oar is confident of the squad's chances ahead of next year's FIFA U-20 World Cup in Columbia

TOMMY Oar believes this Qantas Young Socceroos squad will be better equipped for next year-s FIFA u-20 World Cup in Colombia than last year-s squad.

The winger feels he too will also be better prepared for the tournament with the Egypt 2009 experience under his belt.

Oar was one of the Qantas Young Socceroos- stars at this month-s AFC under-19 Championships which ended in the heartbreaking 3-2 final defeat to DPR Korea.

But the Qantas Young Socceroos had already qualified for Colombia once they had reached the semi finals.

“I-m looking forward to going to Colombia because I didn-t know what to expect last time,-- said Oar, who now plays for Dutch side FC Utrecht.

“But four or five players that went last time can go again and the experience will be helpful for the team and this team will be much better prepared.

“We were proud of making it to the final and we-ll go into the World Cup with confidence.

“The last time making the World Cup was an achievement, but this time we-re aiming to go a step further.

Even though he was then just 17, Oar was one of the team-s better performed players at last year-s FIFA u-20 World Cup when Jan Versleijen-s team was eliminated from the group phase.

He had played less than 10 A-League games at that stage for Brisbane Roar, but the tournament injected huge confidence into the softly-spoken winger.

Oar went on to not only become a Roar regular but made his Qantas Socceroos debut and was then rewarded with a contract with Dutch top flight side FC Utrecht.

He said the current squad has already had more A-League experience that the 2009 squad did at the time and added that it will be a great uplifting experience for his teammates.

“You just have to look at the number of A-League players and the number of games played,-- he said.

“And who knows where everyone will be in a years- time. It can only go up from here.

“Personally the last AFC qualifiers were pretty much my first major tournament with the Young Socceroos so it-s strange looking back that it was two years ago when I was at the QAS _ things have happened really quickly since then.--

Like Oar, Ben Kantarovski, Kofi Danning, Rhyan Grant and Sam Gallagher are also set to feature in their second consecutive finals.